Corporation Sets Its Sights On Mettawa

December 12, 1988|By David Ibata.

W.W. Grainger Inc., one of northern Cook County`s major employers, expects to submit plans in the spring to move its corporate headquarters from Skokie to the north suburb of Mettawa-a prospect that has some Mettawa residents less than enthusiastic.

``This project would change the whole character of Mettawa, and the traffic would cause chaos on Ill. (Hwy.) 60,`` said Anthony Lacko, an open-space advocate who lives about a mile south of the Grainger property, in unincorporated Lake County. ``It will just destroy the whole area.``

At a public hearing on the proposal earlier this year, ``some people spoke in favor of Grainger because they felt its plan would be less of a burden than if the land was cut up into 5-acre squares,`` as residential zoning for the land currently permits, said Mettawa Village President Edward J. Fitzsimons

``The opposing view, expressed quite forcefully by some others, was that this would be the camel`s nose under the tent, and if we let them do this, Ill. 60 would end up looking like Lake-Cook Road.``

Fitzsimons referred to a stretch of Lake-Cook Road through Northbrook and Deerfield that has been heavily developed with office buildings, hotels, shopping areas and restaurants.

Grainger officials declined to predict exactly how many jobs may accompany the move from their home base at 5500 W. Howard St., Skokie, saying only that at least 500 of the 1,200 office employees there would be affected. Fitzsimons, however, said the number 1,000 has been bandied about the village- more than twice the population of this exclusively residential enclave of 400.

In Mettawa, big houses on 5-acre lots are the norm. The village has no municipal police force or fire department; those services are provided by the Lake County sheriff and a rural fire protection district, respectively.

Into this tranquil setting has come one of the nation`s largest distributors of goods the typical consumer rarely encounters, but that are at the heart of American industry: Air compressors and electric motors and commercial refrigerators and professional lawn-care machines, to name a few of the products Grainger carries.

Grainger bought more than 500 acres on the south side of Ill. Hwy. 60 between St. Mary`s and Riverwoods Roads in early 1988. Its land is zoned residential; the only commercially zoned land in Mettawa is an undeveloped tract of 90 acres north of Ill. 60 and east of the Tri-State Tollway.

While the company promises that only its offices would move to Mettawa and that its blue-collar operations, along with a recently completed computer center, would stay in Skokie, the prospects of a big corporation making its home among them has some Mettawa residents concerned.

``It`s an interesting proposition in that we`d be giving up some of the open space we prize so highly,`` Fitzsimons said. ``But Grainger is talking about using only 160 acres for its offices, and preserving the rest of its land for 5-acre (residential) zoning.``

Grainger officials say they`re doing what they can to be good corporate neighbors. In addition to hiring a land planner and traffic engineer, they have retained a forester and an archeologist to determine the natural and historical significance of their site.

The archeologist was brought in ``because we`ve been told there`s the possibility of finding evidence of Indian activity on the land, though so far we found nothing,`` said James Baisley, vice president and general counsel of Grainger.

Baisley said his company chose Lake County for a headquarters not necessarily because its taxes are lower than Cook County`s, but because of the availability of a sizable site just off of an interchange of the Tri-State Tollway.

A development proposal is expected to be submitted to the village this spring, he said. The approval process probably will take all of 1989; a final decision might be made in 1990, and if it is positive, construction could begin in the early 1990s.

To fit in, Baisley said, Grainger will seek office campus zoning that probably would require that the company leave as open space at least 50 percent of its 160 acres of headquarters land, provide landscape screening on all sides, and restrict the heights of its buildings to no taller than the tallest surrounding trees.

No firm plans have been set for the balance of Grainger`s land, part of which is still being operated by Jack Galter, the property`s former owner, as the DJ Stables, ``but it will definitely be residential`` in keeping with the rest of Mettawa, Baisley said.